All day on a boat

Food.. and the chef
see all photos »

It took a little bit time to set up the camps. Our camp site was nice and large and we felt pretty lucky to get a camp in a jam packed and spectacularly beautiful campground. It was noting short of a miracle that we found a spot open in Lake Chelan State Park 2 days in advance. This park usually sells out months in advance, especially for the Memorial Day weekend; someone canceled at just the right time.

The focus quickly shifted to food and some drinks. We opened up our stuff and while some of us (Nitin, Manu and I) started the cooking process, others headed out to find some drink. After driving about 10 miles in some direction and not finding anything we came back to find a cafe just across the campgound entrance that sold wine and beer to go. Awesome !

once we were out on the water it was just fabulous

The great tubing experiment
see all photos »

We came back to find the camp fires roaring and maggi cooking. Add to that some chicken legs, roasted onions and potatoes and some pao bhaji and we had ourselves a perfect meal.

The meal was followed by a long talknig session and games of Mafia, way into the night. It started to drizzle and then rain, so we settled into one of the 3 camps and talked into the night. Till the point it got too quiet outside and the tent had a lot of condensation on the inside. Overnight, there was more condensation in both the tents except for mine, so I slept nicely till I woke up with the chirping of the birds. It was 4:18 am. I tried to sleep on and managed a shut eye till about 6.

The boat driver
see all photos »

Soon everyone was up, not many had slept much. But we had a boat booked for all day. We cooked some quick breakfast, made some coffee and then washed our faces in cold water, there is no water heater at the campsite.

We went to pick up the boats, got there a little early but then once we were out on the water it was just fabulous. The lake itslef is quite narrow but 55 miles long, we were only allowed to go till about 8 miles. The water was quite calm and we made full use of the speed of the boat. A tube came free with the boat and after numerous attempts from Nishant, it was Nitin who managed to ride the tube. After that it was a ton of fun. As the day passed the lake got more and more crowded and when I tried to rent a Jet-Ski, there was about a 2 hour wait. So I chucked the idea. We had delicious burgers and shakes from a take out place just next to the place where we rented the place from. After a little more fun on the water and lot of sunburns, we started our drive back to Seattle.

Pose...
see all photos »

It was a fun drive, lot of good conversation and some fun with my 2 way radio set. We had dinner at an Indan restaurant in Bellevue and then headed home. It was a wonderful trip, great memories. And just that I don't forget this soon, I had a lot of skin shedding to do, the sun screen hadnt worked as well as I wanted it to.